Strong opinions, weakly held

Michael Kinsley decries President Bush’s fascination with small business, but doesn’t explain why it exists. As I learned from Fast Food Nation, small business owners are some of the most dedicated Republican donors you’ll find. Republicans really are the party of small business — they fight against unions, they work to keep the minimum wage as low as possible, and they pass all sorts of bogus incentive plans that enable small businesses to get tax breaks for cycling through low wage employees. Obviously the tax cuts that are currently being proposed benefit the extremely rich, but they’re going to be extremely rich regardless of whether or not the tax cuts pass. The people who really stand to benefit are people who are just wealthy, like successful small business owners. Promoting and pandering to small business pays big dividends for Republicans.